Second Week in March
On March 16, 1972, Oakland A's holdout Vida Blue announced that he had rejected the team's latest contract offer and had decided to retire in order to work for a company that made toilet fixtures. The "retirement" of the 1971 American League MVP and Cy Young Award winner didn't last long; Blue would eventually came to terms with Oakland owner Charlie Finley and begin his season in May. Although Blue, who wore the A's cap pictured here, struggled to regain his pre-holdout form for most of the 1972 season, he nonetheless contributed to all three of Oakland's world championship teams from '72-74. In 1973, Blue bounced back to win 20 games as the A's repeated as world champions.